movie review - Moon
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
This is an excellent sci-fi piece about a fellow who has a three-year solo work assignment on the "far side" of the moon. When some equipment breaks down he calls for assistance but it looks bad; he's stranded alone, the only person on the planet working for this mining concern. The communications satellite isn't working and no one even knows he's in trouble.
He later awakes from stasis to be greeted by the station's non-human resident, a robot. He's weak and the robot is acting oddly, refusing to let him out of the station. Our man overcomes these objections and promptly revisits the site where the rover broke down. There he finds a lookalike to himself, seemingly dead. He hauls the body back to the station and it turns out that the man is battered but still alive. Naturally, when that man comes to, tensions arise because someone's obviously a clone.
Sam Rockwell does a superb job depicting the isolation, paranoia, and frustration of the job. He spends most of the movie trying to raise his family back on Earth, but those contacts only results in more confusion. The tension is a-quiver throughout, as we try to work out what is happening. The damn robot plays a mysterious role in everything that's going on. The Moon's deadly and sterile setting is perfect, the isolation (being on the "far" side), the terrible corporate communications .. it all hangs together beautifully.
A favorite. Strongly recommended. It's a pity that I seem to be the only person to have seen this thing.